Second Jobs and the Value of Illinois Worker’s Compensation Benefits

Your average weekly wage (AWW) is one of the most important variables in determining the amount of benefits you should receive in connection with your Illinois worker’s compensation case. The amount of your Temporary Total Disability (TTD) checks is two-thirds of your average weekly wage while you are off work. The amount of your settlement for permanency is also determined on the basis of 60% of your average weekly wage.

What happens when you have two jobs, but are hurt in a workplace accident at one workplace? The answer to this is that if the employer you were working for at the time of your injury and was aware of your working a second job and approving of it, then your wages from your second job should be used in computing your average weekly wage.

Most employer and their worker’s compensation insurers will not volunteer that the wages from your second job can be included in computing your average weekly wage. In fact, most will tell injured workers that it cannot be included.

The bottom line is that a second job may be included in computing the average weekly wage of an injured worker, and that if you have a second job for which you are not receiving compensation, you are costing yourself thousands of dollars in benefits while your case is going on and again at the end of your case when you settle the permanency portion of your case.